Sentences
by Blossomwitch
Summary: Several snapshots of Hiei and Kurama's relationship, giving different takes and viewpoints on it. Some of these are friendship and some are yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Continuing with my newfound tradition of completing challenges without necessarily posting the results where they're supposed to be...**_

_**The following are completely unrelated sentences, except that they all relate to the Hiei and Kurama relationship, but they are not part of any story. They're just snapshots. The challenge is to write one sentence, and only one, in response to each of the words in parenthesis at the beginnings. There's 5 sets of 50 words and I intend to do them all for this couple, so keep checking back.**_

_** I would really really love to know which everyone's favorite sentences are, even if it's a lot of them, so I can see if they coincide with my favorites and which ideas I should be getting back to and exploring further; if you'd let me know in your reviews I'd love you forever. Thanks!**_

#1 (_Comfort)_: Throughout his long life, the only person Hiei ever found he could accept the concept of 'comfort' from was a compassionate redhead with arms strong enough to keep the nightmares out, but gentle enough never to hold him longer than he sought to stay.

#2 (_Kiss)_: Kurama liked to kiss, and Hiei tried to convince himself that he was indulging Kurama's foibles, repaying him for all the healing and the sound advice, when he offered his partner kisses on arriving, and leaving, and sometimes for no reason at all.

#3 (_Soft)_ Kurama discovered, while tending his wounds, that Hiei's skin was as soft as a young child's, and he stared at Hiei in amazement and wondered just how old he really was.

#4 (_Pain)_: To Hiei, sex and pain were the same thing, so it was several years before he could put a name to what it was he and Kurama were doing.

#5 (_Potatoes)_: The first time Kurama gave Hiei human food it led to Hiei being sick for hours, and it was nearly a month before Hiei would let Kurama cook for him again.

#6 (_Rain)_: They sat on opposite sides of town, staring at the darkening clouds, each praying that it would rain so that Hiei would have an excuse to come over and they could be together.

#7 (_Chocolate)_: Cocoa beans were not something native to the Makai, so when Hiei gave Kurama a piece of sweet chocolate in apology for his lateness, Kurama knew Hiei'd done his research.

#8 (_Happiness)_: Happiness was nebulous and rare, and they both knew it; when they discovered happiness in each other they never spoke of it, holding their breath as they quietly cultivated it, aware that the slightest wrong move would send it shattering.

#9 _(Telephone)_: Hiei threw away the first two cell phones Kurama bought him but kept the third when Kurama explained, with tears in his eyes, that he couldn't stand not knowing where Hiei was anymore.

#10 _(Ears)_: Kurama thought Hiei's ears were cute and elfin, and said so at great length, and was also known to remark on how this apparently prevented them from hearing anything they didn't want to.

#11 (_Name)_: Kurama was the first person in human world that Hiei gave his true name to, and it left a hole in him, a slight ache that was only filled later that night when the fox gave his own name, also unspoken in this realm, in return.

#12 _(Sensual)_: To Hiei, the only thing that mattered was the fight; so it wasn't surprising that the first time he thought of Kurama as beautiful was while watching him kill.

#13 (_Death)_: Kurama had stopped fearing his own death centuries ago, and so it really irritated him when he began to fear Hiei's.

#14 (_Sex)_: Sex with Kurama was different and better than any sex Hiei'd had before, and at first he believed it was because of his lover's centuries of skill in the bedroom arts, but as time went on and the novelty didn't fade he realized the difference was that Kurama loved him.

#15 _(Touch)_: They touched in battle, one of them shoving off the other's shoulder, one of them catching the other as he fell; they touched in practice for battle, matching their weapons and wits, or matching their bare hands and sheer will to win; but when they touched outside the game, and had no excuse for their hands shaking or bodies quivering, they were quick to pull away.

#16: _(Weakness)_: Just like sex was pain, love was weakness if you asked Hiei, and it was only after years and years of patient effort that Kurama could change his mind about either thing.

#17 _(Tears_): Kurama hated that Hiei never cried when they fought, hated it and feared that it was a sign that it didn't really matter; until one day he hurt Hiei badly enough that he did cry, and as he watched his lover pick up the scattered red-black gems as they fell, angry and hurting and trying to ignore it all, he realized why Hiei had taught himself not to cry.

#18 (_Speed_): Hiei could run faster than the eye could follow him, but Kurama could track a scent gone two weeks cold, and trying to hide from him was useless anyway.

#19 (_Wind_): The wind howled in Hiei's ears, and as it did so it carried a mocking echo of laughter, of a voice sweet and gentle in its mirth, that Hiei knew he had said goodbye to forever.

#20 _(Freedom)_: Hiei had always believed freedom was not belonging to anybody--until he met somebody he wanted to belong to and discovered the ache, the pain, of not belonging was more constricting than any love ever could be.

#21 (_Life_): "Life," Kurama told Hiei firmly over Shiori's grave, "is more than the avoidance of death--life is meant for joy, for celebration of those we are close to, for more than pursuit of a cold revenge or worthless trophies... she was the one who taught me that, you know."

#22 (_Jealousy):_ Yusuke found it amusing that every time he touched Hiei's shoulder, Kurama would growl under his breath.

#23 (_Hands_) Hiei refused to hold hands with Kurama, because he said it made him feel like a child; Kurama asked when Hiei had ever had a hand to hold as a child, and Hiei fell silent.

#24 (_Taste)_: Hiei tasted of Makai, of blood and wind and the struggle to survive, and it was that taste of home, unexpected in its presence and the longing it inspired, that Kurama sought again and again in his mouth.

#25 (_Devotion_): Hiei knew each time he passed out that he would wake in a safe place, with his arm neatly bandaged and his Jagan securely bound; and he would know Kurama had tended to him, for no one else was brave enough to approach the weapons Hiei possessed when their wielder was asleep.

#26 (_Forever_) Forever meant a lot more to the centuries-old fox demon than it did to his younger companion--but when Hiei asked for it, Kurama told him yes anyway.

#27 (_Blood)_ Hiei liked to taste his enemy's blood during a fight; but when he fought with Kurama and got a fleck of blood on his lips, it nearly made him throw up to realize he'd made the fox bleed.

#28 (_Sickness): _Hiei's love for Kurama was feverish, intense and delirious and sometimes painful, as though he had been struck by a rare and potent disease that only this gentle healer could cure.

#29 (_Melody_): Kurama's scent was like a melody on the air, elusive and ethereal and ensorcelling, and Hiei followed it like any spellbound mortal man.

#30 (_Star_): Kurama taught Hiei to wish on falling stars, and Hiei called him a stupid ningen, but many times after that when things grew dark Kurama would catch Hiei scanning the skies for a star to wish on.

#31 (_Home)_: Home was not a concept Hiei subscribed to, so he thought of Kurama's room as a base of operations, and never noticed that he missed the scent of it when he was away.

#32 (_Confusion): _Hiei stared at Kurama in confusion, and it was many minutes and several failed attempts later that the little fire demon realized Kurama wasn't trying to bite him, but to kiss him.

#33 (_Fear_): The moment Hiei realized he loved Kurama was the moment he began to fear him, because of what could now be taken away.

#34 (_Lightning/Thunder): _Kurama earned Hiei's unending gratitude for not laughing when he found out that the real reason Hiei came to his house when it rained was not that he didn't like to be wet, but rather that he was afraid of lightning and thunder.

#35 (_Bonds_): He tied Kurama to the bed during sex, because it gave him the illusion of power over the fox whom he knew had, in reality, bound Hiei to himself tighter than Hiei could ever hope to bind him back.

#36 (_Market): _Hiei knew when he found himself going to the supermarket to fetch Shiori milk that his corruption was complete, and it was all the damned fox's fault.

#37 (_Technology): _Technology baffled Hiei, and while he tolerated such conveniences as a microwave and a refrigerator and even learned something of how to use them, he had a tendency to blow up the computer if he felt Kurama was spending too long at it, or "accidentally" switch off the alarm clock that took his lover from him at the start of the day.

#38 (_Gift)_: The only gift Hiei ever gave Kurama was a flower, and it was meant to be a weapon, but Kurama put in it a vase and let it bloom.

#39 (_Smile): _Hiei's smile was usually sadistic and a thing to fear, an expression of joy at someone else's pain; it was only Kurama who knew that same smile could be heartbreaking in its innocence if it was caught in just exactly the right moment, like a shy and beautiful creature who could dance only if no one was looking.

#40 (_Innocence)_: It was a while into their relationship before Hiei realized Kurama only had the barest, most confused memories of being Youko; and as the years passed and the memories returned and became clearer, Hiei never stopped feeling sad for the lost innocence of Shuichi Minamino's eyes.

#41 (_Completion)_: Completion was the word that roared through Hiei's mind and permeated his being, the night he first lay sweatsoaked on Kurama's futon, waiting for his breath and sanity to return.

#42 _(Clouds): _Chasing each other's love was like chasing clouds that the wind blew across the sky, that dissolved in your hands if you ever got to hold them; but nonetheless they suddenly woke one morning to find that the sky was overcast, and that they couldn't be without each other.

#43 _(Sky)_: The sky was vast, whether here or in Ningenkai, and looking at it terrified Hiei and made him feel like he was falling, gave him vertigo because his first and most powerful memory was of looking down at it, not up--but just before he grew too dizzy a hand at his elbow steadied him, and the others never noticed how close he had come to falling.

#44 (_Heaven_): Heaven was not a place either of them believed in, but they murmured the word in each other's ears as they made love anyway.

#45 (_Hell)_: Being personally acquainted with the lord of the dead as he was, and knowing him to be a toddler, Kurama had little fear of hell; but when he found himself separated from his mate for days on end, not knowing if he was alive or dead or imprisoned, he went to Koenma after the ordeal and made him promise that he and Hiei would not endure separation after their deaths.

#46 (_Sun_): Hiei saw Kurama outlined against the setting sun, glorious in his wrath, eyes glinting with emerald fire and hair black against the brilliance of the sunset, and the afterimage stayed with him longer than merely staring into the sun could account for.

#47 (_Moon_): "There is a fox in the moon," Kurama whispered to Hiei one night, "not a man like the humans say but a fox, silver-white and cunning, and he watches you when I cannot," and then they both laughed.

#48 (_Waves_): When Yusuke came back, Kurama did not go to splash in the tide with the others; he was glad to see Yusuke, but was saving his own celebration, his own joy, for another demon who had promised to come back soon

#49 (_Hair)_: Kurama's hair was a subject of great debate, and no one knew that the real reason he'd grown it out, and kept it long, was that Hiei liked it that way.

#50 (_Supernova):_ Hiei read Kurama's textbooks when he was bored, and made strange and putridly romantic associations in his head--a black hole is missing you, a sun is your brightness with me in orbit around it, a supernova is what it would be to kiss you--that he never told to anyone.


	2. Attack of the Semicolons

**_I had a much harder time with this second set, so I hope they're up to snuff. It's hard to cram a whole idea into one setences without; excessive; use; of; semicolons; please forgive me. Again, please tell me which ones are your faves and hopefully I can expand on them later!_**

#1 (_Walking)_: He knew how much Kurama loved him when Hiei walked away from everyone else, walked away from their friends and their enemies both, and found Kurama walking beside him.

#2 (_Waltz_): Kurama was a dancer, graceful and elegant no matter what he did; and although he humored the girls that were his friends, waltzing and swing dancing with them, the dances he loved best were the dances he performed with Hiei, dances of suspicion and trust and partnership and lust and eventually love.

#3 (_Wishes_): "If wishes were horses," Kurama muttered to himself, watching Hiei train and allowing himself to watch every movement his shirtless chest went through, but not to voice his admiration, "I would most definitely ride."

#4 (_Wonder_): Kurama sometimes wondered what Hiei saw in him, so obviously weaker and less driven, not interested in the things that Hiei was interested in; he didn't know that Hiei sometimes wondered what Kurama saw in him, so obviously damaged and less genteel, not able to compete with him intellectually.

#5 _(Worry)_: No matter whether it had been days or months since last seeing him, when Kurama turned to find Hiei in his window he always took a deep breath and then smiled; the smile was for his friend, to let him know he was welcome, but the breath was sheer unadulterated relief that his friend was still alive.

#6 (_Whimsy_): Hiei thought it was a lark when Kurama seduced him, one of Youko's whims, and didn't let on that it mattered to him until one day he realized it had been seven years and Kurama had not taken another lover, not once, nor betrayed him in any way.

#7 (_Waste/Wasteland_): Hiei went so far to refer to himself as an emotional wasteland while trying to talk Kurama out of falling in love with him, calling on persuasive speech and metaphors he hadn't known he could use; Kurama only laughed and opened his arms to him.

#8 (_Whiskey and rum)_: The first time Hiei got drunk off human alcohol Kurama supported the stumbling demon back to his own apartment, where Hiei kissed him insistently and, when Kurama demurred, claimed he wasn't really as drunk as he looked before suddenly falling asleep.

#9 (_War_): Because they had both been fighting their entire lives, they approached their love like a war and spent years in skirmishes and tactical retreats before they realized that love allowed both parties to win, but required both parties to surrender.

#10 (_Weddings_) At the wedding of Kuwabara and Yukina, Hiei took studious note of what the humans considered binding and romantic and added it to his store of demonic knowledge in order to woo his half-human, half-demon love.

#11 (_Birthday)_: Hiei had no knowledge of his birthday and refused to either ask Yukina or select a random day, claiming that his birth had been so traumatic it was ridiculous to celebrate it--but when Kurama went ahead and picked a day anyway and celebrated on it, Hiei smiled.

#12 (_Blessing_): It hurt Hiei deeply when Kurama gave his blessing for Hiei to return to Makai, for he had wanted Kurama to object, to ask Hiei to stay with him; it took years for him to realize Kurama suffered deeply in his absence, but was too proud to ask for something he did not think Hiei wanted to give.

#13 (_Bias_): Hiei was snide in his opinion that all Youkos were whores and lechers, and Kurama never contradicted him and bore the teasing gently until the day Hiei witnessed him clenching his fists so tightly his fingernails cut his palms, whispering under his breath that it wasn't true; then Hiei never spoke of it again.

#14 (_Burning_) Hiei was on fire from the moment he was born, his soul tormented in the inferno of his parents' sin; so what he sought in Kurama was not the sensation of being consumed by the fire of love that so many others described, but rather to cease burning, to be allowed moments and even hours in which Kurama's blessedly cooler, greener spirit would soothe the raging heat.

#15 (_Breathing_): In the stillness of the night Hiei lay awake for hours, listening to Kurama breathe, and wondering why the sound brought him such solace.

#16 (_Breaking_): Hiei, who had a broken soul, scoffed at claims of others' broken hearts; until Kurama married a human girl, soft and sweet and everything Hiei was not, and Hiei learned that of the two a broken heart could hurt worse.

#17 (_Belief)_: It was many people's belief that Hiei was incapable of experiencing most emotions, though a few people like Yusuke and Yukina believed otherwise; Kurama, however, did not need to believe, because Hiei had shown his emotions to him, and he knew.

#18 (_Balloon_): The first time Hiei saw a balloon he didn't know what it was, so Kurama bought him one and taught him how you could write a message to God or someone dead or far away on the surface and then let it go and watch it fly into the sky; Hiei scoffed at him, but later asked Kurama for a marker with which he wrote a message to his mother before letting the balloon go.

#19 (_Balcony)_: The balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet was Kurama's favorite, and when Hiei turned his nose up at it Kurama explained that it was about lovers rejecting their past and their families, rejecting what others had told them to be in order to be with one another, and Hiei allowed that it might be tolerable, at that.

#20 (_Bane_): Hiei was born to be the bane of the koorime, but like so many children he rejected the path his elders had laid out for him and chose instead, after long consideration, to make a home with the first soul to show him true kindness and forget the koorime even existed.

#21 (_Quiet_): The quiet after you have said "I love you," and someone has not said it back to you is the deepest, most impenetrable silence in the world; Kurama endured it often, and yet despite Hiei's obvious refusal to admit the same, the fire demon never rebuked him for saying it.

#22 (_Quirks)_: Every lover had their quirks, and so on the seemingly random mornings when Hiei would cling to Kurama and not allow him to get out of bed Kurama would shrug and cuddle with him for a few moments, and not recognize it as a symptom of Hiei's terror that Kurama would leave him.

#23 (_Question_): Hiei never asked Kurama if he loved him, or to stay with him, or be monogamous: the only question he ever had for Kurama was if he trusted him, and Kurama's wholehearted yes was always enough.

#24 (_Quarrel)_: They quarreled as friends all the time, but the first time they quarreled as lovers it felt like the end of the world to Hiei, and Kurama had to hold him afterwards for hours and stroke his hair and assure him that it was not, in fact, the end.

#25 (_Quitting_): No matter how hard Kurama tried, he could never stop hoping that Hiei would come back to him, and so it was that over two years after the Makai Tournament, when Hiei quit Mukuro's service and found himself back in the hated Ningenkai, Kurama's window was still unlocked.

#26 (_Jump_) The first time Hiei jumped and Kurama was there to catch him, he was so surprised to be caught that he flailed around and they both went tumbling, and their friends laughed at them.

#27 (_Jester_): After the Dark Tournament, Hiei made Kurama swear a very serious oath to kill him if he ever became as deluded as 'The Beautiful' Sazuka.

#28 (_Jousting)_: The first time they had sex it was a battle, flowing seamlessly from their sparring practice, and it was many weeks before they could make love without fighting each other while they did it.

#29 (_Jewel)_: Kurama called Hiei _jueru_, which meant jewel, as his pet name for him, to let Hiei know he was precious and of great value to him; he never knew how much the nickname hurt, making Hiei think of the jeweled tears of his people, because some things have to hurt to heal and so Hiei never spoke of the pain.

#30 (_Just_) "Just because," Kurama said, smiling, as he pressed small presents into Hiei's hands; Hiei didn't understand that the rest of the sentence, left unspoken, was "I love you."

#31 (_Smirk_): No one could smirk quite like Hiei could--that was the belief Hiei himself held until one day, without his quite realizing what was happening, Kurama managed to tie him to the bedposts and he discovered that just because one did not smirk in public did not mean one was not very, very good at it.

#32 (_Sorrow): _Sorrow was gentler than rage or agony, just as Kurama was gentler than Hiei; but after a time, when they knew each other better, Hiei realized that the burden of sorrow could grow as heavy as anything else, and drown the soul even more easily than a more heated pain could.

#33 (_Stupidity_): "You can be so stupid sometimes," Kurama whispered sadly, after lovemaking, when Hiei asked if Kurama wanted him to leave.

#34 (_Serenade)_: A human girl got it into her head that the best way to win Shuichi Minamino over would be to sing a song she'd written for him; Kurama had to physically restrain Hiei from killing her, and though Hiei claimed he only sought to be rid of the horror of her voice, Kurama knew fire demons tolerated no threat, however small, to their chosen one's fidelity.

#35 (_Sarcasm)_: Sarcasm was Hiei's natural state of being, so it took three tries before Kurama would believe that when Hiei said I love you, that was exactly what he meant.

#36 (_Sordid)_: Just as Karasu had cornered Kurama, Hiei later cornered Karasu, and growled, "Get your sordid fantasies away from _my_ fox."

#37 (_Soliloquy)_; A soliloquy, by definition, has only one person speaking, and if Hiei thought of Kurama as special in the first years he thought of him as an audience to his own soliloquy; it was many years before he realized Kurama was speaking the same or similar lines along with him, and his pain and his yearnings were not so much a soliloquy as half of a duet.

#38 (_Sojourn_): Hiei left the house in the middle of the night one night not long after he moved in with Kurama, wanting a little freedom and solitude and time to wonder; he was quite surprised to return to find Kurama curled up in the center of the bed in a small knot, very awake and unhappy, and he was quite willing to crawl back into bed with him and stay there until his lover was calm again.

#39 (_Share_): "I don't share," Kurama informed Mukuro icily, ignoring her amused smile as he pulled Hiei closer to himself.

#40 (_Solitary)_: Hiei thought he was solitary by nature, but when he started spending time with Kurama he was forced to admit to himself that he had really hated being alone, and only thought before this that no one wanted to be with him.

#41 (_Nowhere_): It was the day that he first found Kurama's window locked that Hiei first contemplated suicide--for he knew if he did not belong with Kurama, was not welcome there, he belonged nowhere and was welcome nowhere.

#42 (_Neutral_): Hiei claimed to be absolutely neutral on the subject of Kurama dating, but the people Kurama went out with tended to wake screaming later in the night from dreams of angry black dragons warning them off, and no relationship lasted into a second date.

#43 (_Nuance_): Kurama had known Hiei for a long time, and even if he hadn't he was an expert reader of face and voice; the nuances in Hiei's tone when he said "I love you," told Kurama it wasn't true, that he was only trying to spare pain to someone he cared about even if it wasn't the care Kurama would have wished, and Kurama bid him sadly away, angered by his pity.

#44 (_Near_): Kurama could always tell when Hiei was near, for his pulse would speed up and he would feel a flush creep up his throat, his subconscious recognizing Hiei's presence and responding to it long before he heard his lover's deep voice or smelled his scent.

#45 (_Natural_): The thing that surprised Hiei the most about falling in love was how very natural it felt, how he didn't realize he was in love until they were separated, because being near Kurama and speaking to him and touching him and sleeping in his bed had all become so much a part of his life that it was like breathing.

#46 (_Horizon_): Hiei claimed that love was an illusion, like the horizon, something you could see but never ever touch--Kurama draped his arms around Hiei and declared the theory disproved, and Hiei blushed and didn't say anything while everyone laughed.

#47 (_Valiant_): Neither of them felt the need to be morally right, or valiant and chivalrous, in their dealings; they only felt the need to win, and to keep safe that which mattered to them, and chief among these things that mattered was each other.

#48 (_Virtuous_): "I don't want someone virtuous," Kurama told Hiei quietly, "I want someone who's been as low and dirty as I have been, and I want someone I can still trust with my life in spite of that because he has such honor, and I want someone who cares for the people he loves the way I have seen you do--I want all that for myself."

#49 (_Victory_): Hiei gave Kurama a stern talk after the Dark Tournament, and told him in no uncertain terms that while he could not speak for others, Kurama was never to risk his life on Hiei's account again because for Hiei, no battle that ended in Kurama's death could be anything but a crushing defeat.

#50 (_Defeat_): "All I'm saying," Yusuke said, "is that I've never seen two people who care about each other so much hurt each other so badly, and after you fight it doesn't seem to matter who proved whose point because you're both so shattered... and yet, you fight again, and again, and neither of you ever wins."


	3. First and even second POV

**_We're back, with plenty of dialogue and plenty of POV changes, as well as those good ol' semicolons. I actually thought about rewriting all of these as first person just for kicks, but decided against it. Some of them are deliberately ambiguous as to who's speaking and who's being spoken of . As always, let me know which ones are your favorites!_**

#1 (_Ring_): Hiei was perplexed that his very visible mark on Kurama did nothing to deter the ningen fan club, until Yusuke had a word with him; then Hiei bought Kurama a very visible ring, and scolded him for not explaining that this was how ningens marked one another.

#2 (_Hero_): Hiei had told Yusuke that he disliked heroes, and he hated clowns and despised martyrs; nevertheless, when one of his teammates was in danger he always felt a surge of heat rush through him that didn't leave until they were safe, and when he explained his actions away afterwards Kurama would only smile knowingly.

#3 (_Memory_): When Kurama persisted in trying to learn of Hiei's past, wanting to help him cope, Hiei took his hand and squeezed it in gratitude but nonetheless looked him very seriously in the eyes as he said, "Some things are best not remembered."

#4 (_Box_): When the Idun box opened and Kurama's older, more powerful form was revealed, Hiei could only stare, struck with admiration and a little awe, and realize exactly how wise his decision to avoid fighting Kurama and partner with him instead had really been.

#5 (_Run_): Kurama could never chase Hiei down when he chose to run away, for Hiei's speed was infinitely superior; but the words Kurama said sank into the fire demon like deep barbs, and no matter how fast or how far he ran Hiei knew he would be going back.

#6 (_Hurricane_): In the worst of all possible storms, they clung to each other--Kurama lending Hiei his bodyweight to sustain them against the wind, Hiei using his natural affinity for fire to keep them dry--and waited it out.

#7 (_Wings_): Sometimes watching him sleep, watching him twitch and jerk and cry in his slumber, I find myself futilely wishing that I possessed wings somehow strong enough to lift me away from memory; I would surrender them to him in a heartbeat.

#8 (_Cold_): Hiei told their teammates he was cold as he situated himself extremely close to Kurama's side, pressing against him; Kurama, who had been known to use Hiei's natural control of heat in lieu of an electric blanket, smiled and said nothing.

#9 (_Red_): Hiei woke sweating from dreams of red and thought they signified carnage; only when the red was infiltrated with swirls of green and growing things did he realize he had to go back to Ningenkai.

#10 (_Drink_): "Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die," Kurama murmured before he took the first trial swallow of the potion Sazuka had given him; "That's not funny, fox," Hiei growled back.

#11 (_Midnight_): When Kurama asked what time it was, wanting to get home before his mother thought to worry for him, Hiei lied and said it was early because he did not want yet to lose his company.

#12 (_Temptation)_: After the first time he woke up in Kurama's bed Hiei took it for granted that he was allowed to collapse there to heal or hibernate; Kurama never told him otherwise but nonetheless stayed awake, watching him with his fingernails pressed into his palms, not trusting himself to get into bed alongside him.

#13 (_View_): There were certain sights that would trigger memories for Kurama, memories that would have bothered Youko but sent Shuuichi into near spasms, and because of this sometimes as they traveled Hiei would without speaking place his hand over Kurama's eyes; and Kurama also would not speak until it was removed, trusting both that it was necessary and that Hiei would not lead him astray.

#14 (_Music_): Hiei had scorned music most of his life, as unnecessary and frequently overemotional; but he found he could spend hours lying on his back in Kurama's bed with his eyes closed, listening to Kurama humming absently as he worked.

#15 (_Silk_): Silk was a material that Kurama wore often, and easily, and the point of wearing it was to allow it to caress his skin and accentuate his form until Hiei would feel obliged to remove it.

#16 (_Cover_): Hiei used his body as a shield for Kurama's when the ceiling caved in, covering the kistune's vital points, and on careful consideration of the fact that the only other person Kurama had seen Hiei do that for was Yukina, Kurama decided not to question him as to why.

#17 (_Promise_) A promise between demons could mean nothing, or everything; knowing Hiei's honor was the only thing that kept him alive, Kurama knew when Hiei promised to return that if it was years or even decades, the promise would be kept.

#18 (_Dream_): Hiei dreamed Kurama's death, and would wake and open his Jagan and look across the worlds, searching until he found that spark of energy that attested his partner lived, and would sleep again... until the next time the dream came.

#19 (_Candle_): Hiei's eyes glowed faintly in the dark, like a candle left by a child's bedside, guiding Kurama back to where he needed to be.

#20 (_Talent_): "You have a talent," Kurama informed Hiei dryly, surveying his partner's handiwork, "for making me go weak in the knees," and then he turned away, unable to hide his smile, and walked off, leaving Hiei staring openmouthed after him.

#21 (_Silence_): Not once in their relationship did the words "I love you" pass Hiei's lips, but so full of sincerity and devotion was the fire demon's silence that not once did Kurama doubt it was true.

#22 (_Journey_): When Hiei decided to locate his father, he asked for no companions on his journey and even went so far as to threaten the Dragon on Yusuke to keep him from following; but when he saw golden eyes reflected by the light of his fire, and found a silver strand of fox fur on his bedroll, he nodded his acceptance.

#23 (_Fire_): To be in love with fire is a dangerous thing, for your lover can so easily sear you to the bone, and all the parts of you that are green and living shrink away from him; but some dark part of you says _yes_, moves you forward, and you embrace the flame.

#24 (_Strength_): Theirs was a love/hate relationship, and one of the things that Hiei hated about Kurama was that he showed Hiei his own weaknesses--for Hiei knew that while he himself claimed to be strong, even the thickest and most solidly built wall is brittle and can be broken, weak in comparison to a living vine that bends and endlessly adapts but does not ever, ever break.

#25 (_Mask_): Hiei knew Kurama well enough to know that all the emotions and thoughts other fighters believed they read on his face were mere deception, a ruse to throw them off his scent; he prided himself on his ability to tell the mask from reality, but was saddened by how little reality he saw.

#26 (_Ice_): What very few people knew was that koorime tears were not only hard like jewels, but cold like ice; what no one but Kurama learned, because no one but Kurama had ever bothered to retrieve them, was that Hiei's tears were also hard but burned the skin.

#27 (_Fall_): After meeting Kurama Hiei lost all sense of equilibrium, of up and down, as if his very world had been turned on its head and gravity no longer applied, and he realized why the ningens called it "falling" in love.

#28 (_Forgotten_): When Kurama traced the scars on Hiei's body, wanting to know where each one had come from, he was very disturbed to learn that Hiei could not remember receiving not only some of the small ones but large, searing marks that spoke of life-threatening injuries; it was only then, in his distress, that Kurama learned there were parts of Hiei's life that were quite thoroughly repressed.

#29 (_Dance_): At Yusuke and Keiko's wedding, Hiei admitted to not knowing how to dance and was teased mercilessly by Kuwabara and a few others; but later, when Yusuke glanced out the window, he saw Kurama and Hiei on the patio, swaying gently together as the one person who could be allowed to do so taught Hiei how to move his body in a way that was not fighting.

#30 (_Body_): They had fought together so long and so intensely, and pulled each other through so many physical ordeals, that when they finally became lovers there was no mystery to each other's bodies, for they already knew them better than they knew their own.

#31 (_Sacred)_: "This is just between us," Kurama whispered to Hiei; "Loving like this is rare, and I do not take it lightly; you are sacred to me."

#32 (_Farewells_): When their farewells had been said, and the matter of Yukina settled, Kurama moved past Hiei and was surprised to find Hiei running after him again in a moment-- "For you, this time," he said, shoving the gem back into Kurama's hands, and then before Kurama could reply he was gone.

#33 (_World_): After all his other goals had been given up on or defeated Hiei's world narrowed to that of Minamino Shuichi's, to a pair of gentle hands and understanding eyes, because Kurama was the one goal he would not desist in pursuing.

#34 (_Formal_): Hiei tried to get the formal wording out, but after he'd made several false starts and his apprehension was becoming more obvious, Kurama cut him off with a firm _yes_ and kissed him silent.

#35 (_Fever_): In his fever, Hiei said many things that surprised Kurama greatly and gave him pause; and when the fever finally broke and Hiei could remember nothing of what he'd said, Kurama looked at him with calculating eyes, wondering if it was best to leave well enough alone.

#36 (_Laugh_): The first time Kurama heard Hiei laugh in pure joy, untainted by victory or cynicism, he turned and stared--Hiei blushed, and turned away too quickly to see Kurama's smile.

#37 (_Lies_): "I don't give a damn," Hiei muttered, turning away from him; "Liar," Kurama said sadly, also turning away.

#38 (_Forever_): Strange, sometimes, how you don't realize at the time that something momentous has happened; when I first met him I thought little of it, and yet when we finally parted for our different worlds I knew part of him would stay with me forever.

#39(_Overwhelmed_): "Koi," Hiei said, half amused and half worried, holding a panting and trembling Kurama to his chest, "that's just the foreplay..."

#40 (_Whisper_): Hiei discovered early on, to his everlasting frustration and helplessness, that even the most mundane of words could become an impossible sexual lure if Kurama only took the time to whisper them.

#42 (_Talk_): "You never talk to me anymore," Kurama complained; "Some things don't need to be said," Hiei replied.

#41 (_Wait_): "Wait," he advised me when hot anger flooded through me, putting a calming hand on my shoulder; "Wait," he begged when I left seeking my death, reaching out for me; "Wait," he whispers now as I leave his bed in the middle of the night, drawing me back from the windowsill with tender and loving caresses.

#43 (_Search)_: After the successful completion of the Maze Castle mission, Kurama casually mentioned in conversation with Koenma that Hiei might be a better operative if his sister was found, then hastily covered his mouth as though he had let a secret drop, but Koenma never once doubted that it had been entirely deliberate.

#44 (_Hope_): He didn't make me believe again, but he did something even worse: he made me hope, and even as I yearn for his regard I curse him for it.

#45 (_Eclipse_): The glory of their individual legends followed them, but when it became common knowledge that the two legends had merged and become one, every folktale of the Makai was eclipsed by the tale of Kurama and Hiei.

#46 (_Gravity_): Kurama watched and studied the way Hiei moved while he fought and finally declared that Hiei had selective control of gravity, which made Hiei smirk.

#47 (_Highway)_: Despite Shuuichi's gentle mannerisms and compassion, despite his tendency to make the peace within their group, Hiei knew much of Youko's vanity remained; and the reason he knew this was that Kurama had shut his window to him for a full ten weeks after Hiei referred to him and Kuronue as common highway robbers.

#48 (_Unknown_): Yusuke and Kuwabara stared in confounded silence after the two demons walking off in opposite directions; then they turned to each other with aggravation, and Yusuke spoke: "Well, are they or aren't they?!"

#49 (_Lock_): It had been boredom that had lead Kurama in his youth to learning the secrets of undoing locks and stealing treasures; but it was love that later lead him to pursue the knowledge of how to undo the locks surrounding one demon's heart.

#50 (_Breathe_): "Just breathe," Kurama whispered to Hiei the first time they made love, holding the panting and trembling fire demon beneath him, "It's okay...just breathe..."


	4. The amazing 88 word sentence

**_Well, every one of these had to be extracted, like a bad tooth, so I don't know if they're up to par. It seems I only write the odd-numbered sets well. Still, let me know your favorites, I love knowing which ones strike a chord and I am intending to make ficlets out of some of these someday. And yes, commas are my friend. _**

#1 (_Air_): Kurama decided he had have a talk witch Hiei when he realized that the sensation he experienced whenever he turned around to suddenly find Hiei not there was most akin to suffocation.

#2 (_Apples_): Yusuke secretly steered Kurama and Hiei into situations in which Hiei would be confronted by something of human world he had not yet experienced; because watching both Hiei's genuine confusion and his willingness to learn as Kurama explained something simple, like how to dip an apple in caramel sauce, while Kurama beamed quietly in a way that clearly stated in his eyes Hiei was both adorable and adored, made Yusuke think of what his childhood should have been like.

#3 (_Beginning_): "What is this, the end or the beginning?" Hiei asked; "The end of one thing, and the beginning of another," Kurama replied, kissing him gently.

#4 (_Bugs_): There were certain courtesies they extended only to each other--Hiei, for example, was as impervious to such natural annoyances as blood-seeking bugs and poison ivy as the master of plant concoctions was, and when their missions took them through cold or water Kurama, like Hiei, was unaffected by anything that fire could burn away--and while the others initially complained at this favoritism, when not only Hiei but Kurama remained closed lipped on the subject the others gradually sensed that it was not something to be discussed.

#5 (_Coffee_): Staring at the afterimage of Hiei blurring and bouncing around the room, for the afterimage was all Kurama's eyes could keep up with, he sighed and said to the snickering duo beside him, "Did you really _have_ to give him coffee?"

#6 (_Dark_): Many things need sunlight to grow, but some few precious things can only be conceived in the darkness; like diamonds, their love was born from dark depths and intense pressure, and like diamonds, it was unbreakable.

#7 (_Despair_): Because of his people's rejection and his childhood amongst thieves, Hiei had long ago despaired of finding someone who could love him, let alone trust him; but when he saw the extent of Kurama's compassion, the lengths to which he was willing to go to offer a second chance, Hiei began to hope.

#8 (_Doors_): Even for an accomplished thief like Kurama the labyrinth surrounding Hiei's love was sometimes too complex--he spent years wandering through it and feeling like every time he opened one door three others would slam shut, never knowing how close to the heart of the labyrinth he was actually coming.

#9 (_Drink_): Hiei rarely showed a sense of humor that didn't involve sarcasm, but when he successfully spiked Kurama's drink at a holiday gathering, the resulting antics had him in tears of mirth.

#10 (_Duty_): "Don't ever stay with me out of a sense of duty," Kurama warned Hiei; "That's what you think this is?" Hiei asked quietly, wounded, before flitting away.

#11 (_Earth_): Hiei came to the Makai Tournament terrified that he would have to fight Kurama; being apart from him had already made Hiei feel like the earth was crumbling away beneath his feet, like something he had always taken for granted was suddenly no longer supporting him, and he knew if he had to fight the fox it would be akin to an earthquake.

#12 (_End_): Hiei watched Kurama walking calmly past him through the forest, on his way back to the human world, and said softly to himself, "This is not the end."

#13 (_Fall_): Hiei could pinpoint the exact moment his obsession with Kurama began--they were running swiftly together, away from danger, and while looking over his shoulder Hiei stumbled; Kurama caught him before he hit the ground, sacrificing his own speed to keep Hiei standing, and did so without a thought, but Hiei thought about it for a long time afterwards.

#14 (_Fire_): "It's romantic," Kurama insisted, when Hiei reflected that sitting in front of a fireplace was a stupid activity; "It's completely unnecessary," Hiei replied, and then he whisked Kurama off to a much more secluded area which he warmed with his own powers, and Kurama allowed as how that was also romantic.

#15 (_Flexible_): The fox may have been graceful in all his ways and actions, but it was cause for great delight and infinite exploration when Kurama discovered that though his personality was rigid, Hiei was actually possessed of the more flexible body.

#16 (_Flying_): Hiei's speed was so great that the first time he carried Kurama somewhere, lifting him away from perceived danger, Kurama compared the experience to flying; Hiei took careful note of the kitsune's joy and cultivated it by "lifting him out of danger" often.

#17 (_Food_): Basic hospitality was far from basic to Hiei, but when Kurama found himself recovering from a particularly nasty wound in Hiei's care Hiei not only saw to it that he had food but cooked meals for him, something he did not do even for himself.

#18 (_Foot_): The foot's worth of difference in their heights made their first kiss extremely awkward, and it didn't take them long to realize that when Kurama wanted a kiss it was best just to pick Hiei up, and if Hiei wanted one the fox's forelocks made excellent handles for pulling him down.

#19 (_Grave_): When Mukuro was unexpectedly felled in battle only a scant two years after the Makai Tournament, Kurama was the only person Hiei ever took to her grave, or even allowed to know where he had buried her, because Kurama was the only person who could be allowed to witness and ease his grief.

#20 (_Green_): Hiei'd been aware of the slow growth of his attraction to green and growing things for some time, but when he became incredibly enraged--and worse, fearful--on witnessing the destruction of a rosebush, he realized he had a serious problem.

#21 (_Head_): When Hiei hit his head badly in battle, he insisted afterwards that the only possible cure for the headache was Kurama's gentle fingers massaging it away, and Kurama was courteous enough do this with Hiei facing away from the others so he wouldn't see them snickering.

#22 (_Hollow_): Once, frustrated and hurt by the little fire demon, Kurama made a sarcastic joke that he could rap on Hiei's chest and hear the echo of the hollow where Hiei's heart should have been; when Hiei turned away from him in pain, Kurama tried to backtrack, but even though Hiei's reaction proved that he did indeed have a heart, the damage was already done.

#23 (_Honor_): Hiei was so repressed that his love for Kurama might never have come to fruition if Yusuke hadn't slyly suggested that it was dishonorable of Hiei to lead Kurama on; then the fire demon went to great lengths to reclaim his honor, and everyone wound up happy, and Yusuke never mentioned that Kurama had never been led on in the first place.

#24 (_Hope_): When Hiei left for Makai he hoped desperately that Kurama would try to stop him and try to make him stay with the group, but perhaps Kurama had decided such efforts were futile, or perhaps he was too involved with his own worries; at any rate he did not entreat Hiei to stay, and so the fire demon flitted away more willing to die than he had been before.

#25 (_Light_): In Hiei's world things were wrong or right, black or white, and he himself was black; but when he met Kurama and discovered how light could come from dark, and dark from light, he found that both his partner and himself possessed many shades of grey.

#26 (_Lost_): Hiei discovered it was possible not to realize you'd been hurt until you were healed, to not know how cold you'd been until you were warm or that you'd been asleep until you were awake... it was possible not to realize you'd been lost until suddenly, somebody found you.

#27 (_Metal_): Hiei replaced his katana often, when the blade shattered in battle or been otherwise fatally damaged, or when it had become too dull to be sharpened to the level he required; only once did he replace it without it having sustained injury, and that was after he had been so tired and distracted in sparring practice that he had slipped and cut Kurama's arm deeply, for he couldn't bear the sense of Kurama's blood on the blade.

#28 (_New_): Many people dream of love, of a mate, from their very earliest years of childhood, but to Hiei the longing to be coupled up was new and bizarre--and yet the time came when he couldn't deny Kurama inspired it in him.

#29 (_Old_): The spirits that inhabited each of their bodies were old, older than their human friends could even conceptualize, and it was perhaps the wisdom of the ages that caused them to trust each other with their lives within hours of meeting, but wait decades before pursuing the connection any further.

#30 (_Peace_): "What is this?" Hiei asked one day, after gesturing around at the home they lived in together, the events that filled their lives, and describing an emotion it was engendering in him; "Peace," Kurama replied, gently taking Hiei's hand in his.

#31 (_Poison_): Hiei accused Kurama of having somehow poisoned him, to plant such an obsession with the fox into his mind; and though Hiei realized later that the obsession was entirely his own, Kurama was so hurt by the allegation that it took years for his trust in Hiei to recover.

#32 (_Pretty_): There were times when the fretful fire demon wished his mate was not quite so pretty, not because he did not trust Kurama but because he did not trust others not to desire him so strongly that they would pursue him against his will; and with the growth of this worry, Hiei learned that beauty is not always a blessing.

#33 (_Rain_): In the later years of Shuichi Minamino's life, whenever it rained he would think back fondly on a little fire demon who used to visit him at such times, his normally erect hair trailing down his neck in a manner than made him look like a drowned duck, and he would look forward to reuniting with that little demon when Shuichi's life was finally at an end.

#34 (_Regret_): They were a study in contrasts in so many ways, and this was one of them: Hiei claimed to regret nothing, and yet guilt and remorse for so many of his past actions consumed him from within-- and Kurama was patent in his regret and pain at his memories of being Youko, and yet in his secret heart of hearts he still sometimes craved the carefree joys of his past life.

#35 (_Roses_): Nearly a full decade after the Makai Tournament, the gardener at Mukuro's castle was to be found to be running screaming from the grounds with singed hair, after an encounter with the lady's heir in which he had directed his attention to a new rosebush producing beautiful blooms; and Hiei was to be found at his window, gripping the frame tightly as he stared painfully at memories of someone long since gone from his life, but not his heart.

#36 (_Secret)_: Kurama couldn't quite put his finger on why it was that the nature of his relationship with Hiei had to be a secret, but all the same he knew without a word being spoken that it had to be, and shielded it from their friends without having to be asked.

#37 (_Snakes_): Snakes had always had a natural revulsion to Kurama's fox-like presence, but after the Dark Tournament he began to find them following him, and it was months before he realized that it was the scent of a dragon on him that attracted them.

#38 (_Snow_): When it snowed Hiei would frequently grow quiet and unresponsive, retreating from the group; Kurama would often excuse himself a few moments later to follow him, and no one knew what passed between them in those times, but Kurama was always cheerful and Hiei his usual smug intolerable self when they both returned.

#39 (_Solid_): Kurama sometimes felt like he'd slammed up a solid brick wall in his attempts to reach Hiei, but every thief worth his salt knew there was no wall that couldn't be scaled, dug under, or otherwise worked around, and so even when the breath was knocked out of him the kitsune persisted.

#40 (_Spring_) Even though it was late autumn when Hiei finally consented to return to human world just for the purpose of being with Kurama, the kitsune couldn't help frolicking as though it were springtime.

#41 (_Stable_): Kuwabara once remarked with awe that throughout all their separations, through Kurama's initial defense of Yusuke and the Makai Tournament and everything, Hiei and Kurama had remained friends; Kurama replied that friends was not exactly the word for it, but they certainly were not enemies, and though their status sometimes changed he always knew where he stood with Hiei.

#42 (_Strange_): The day Yusuke told Kurama that the relationship between Kurama and Hiei was the strangest and most indefinable one Yusuke had ever seen, Kurama looked at him like Yusuke was the peculiar one and asked, "What's strange about it?"

#43 (_Summer_): Hiei's disgust with the human world grew exponentially when he learned that jobs, unlike school, did not let out for the summer and Kurama would no longer be joining him for adventures during that time.

#44 (_Taboo_): "I'm forbidden," Hiei said flatly, turning away from Kurama; "So, if you ask many people, is love between two men," Kurama replied, and then he pulled Hiei close and kissed him anyway.

#45 (_Ugly_): "Jealousy can be an extremely ugly thing," Kurama told Hiei, "but if you think your jealousy is bad, you just try striking one of my friends for touching me again and you'll see how ugly _I_ can get."

#46 (_War_): "How can you be so constantly at war with the person you love?" Kuwabara wondered, watching Yusuke and Keiko verbally spar with each other; "Trust me," Kurama said, with a sidelong glance at Hiei, "it's very easy."

#47 (_Water_) After a battle they found a stream to wash the blood from their bodies, and Kurama insisted on keeping watch while Hiei bathed, to make sure they were not ambushed; he also used the time to sneak many glances of Hiei's naked body with the water pouring off it, and then Hiei took the same watch for the same purpose, both stated and unstated.

#48 (_Welcome_): At first Hiei could not describe the reason he kept returning to Kurama, kept wanting to be with him; but later on in his years, when he could compare that situation to living with Mukuro, or to Yukina's response on finally learning his true identity, he realized Kurama was the first person who had made him feel welcome, and it was that feeling that he craved enough to hunt all the way to Ningenkai for.

#49 (_Winter_): Kurama knew that every winter, no matter how long or how cold, eventually becomes springtime; when he looked at Hiei, he saw the cold snow that protected the half-koorime's heart, and so he bundled up to protect himself from the piercingly icy wind of his disdain and waited hopefully for him to melt.

#50 (_Wood_): Not even the smallest detail of Kurama's personality went unnoticed by Hiei, and when he picked up on the fox's natural affinity for being deep in the woods, he made sure to take Kurama there before proposing any change in their relationship; he didn't know that he could have asked Kurama on a city street, and the answer would still have always been yes.


	5. Parting is such sweet sorrow

_A/N: Whew! Okay, I blame craziness at work + the holiday season for the general lack of updates, but a reluctance to finish this... exercise, I guess, it's not a story... for the lack of updates specifically here. Yes, this is the end, sadly. And each one of these had to be pulled and extracted like a cranky crocodile's tooth. Enjoy, and as always, let me know your favorites. I do hope to expand on some of these, but it may take me awhile. _

#1 (_Motion_): A body in motion tends remain in motion until acted upon by an equal or greater force; so Hiei remained in motion, moving from person to person, not really trusting anybody, until he landed on Kurama's windowsill and became a body not in motion, but at rest.

#2 (_Cool_): To many people Hiei acted cool and unaffected, and generally only showed the heat of his fire demon ancestry in battle;  
but to Kurama he showed passion as a matter of course, to the point that Kurama learned to read Hiei's acting as though he didn't care as a sign that Kurama had hurt him somehow.

#3 (_Young_): Those who were also young believed in Hiei's pretense of world-wise experience; but Kurama, whose eyes held the wisdom of the centuries, saw him instantly and forever as the youth he really was, a hardened Lost Boy who needed nothing so badly as a place to call home.

#4 (_Last_): The last time I saw him, I refused to acknowledge that it might be the last time, and so I let him go; years later, I wondered if never receiving any of the acknowledgement he so desperately wanted from me could have contributed to his death.

#5 (_Wrong_): Even after forging bonds of trust and friendship with others such as Yusuke, Hiei still found that the only person he felt safe enough with to admit that he had been wrong to was Kurama, and consequentially the rest of the world continued to regard him as egotistical.

#6 (_Gentle_): Gentle is not a word that many would have ascribed to Hiei, though those who had not seen Kurama fight might readily have used it to describe him; but nevertheless it was Hiei who stilled Kurama's trembling, Hiei whose soft voice eased Kurama's fears, the first time they made love.

#7 (_One_): Hiei usually scowled and sulked his way through any philosophical conversation the others took part in; but when Kuwabara and Kurama debated one day whether there was only one love destined for each person, Yusuke noted with amusement that Hiei took very close note of Kurama's stance.

#8 (_Thousand_): Kurama knew in his heart that he possessed more cruelty than Hiei, for although he rarely killed he was not opposed to making his prey suffer, drawing out the agony if it suited his purpose, and often he did not even kill but maimed as he had done with Yomi;

but though Kurama had watched Hiei make a thousand separate kills, though Hiei bragged and taunted, he never made his enemy suffer longer than necessary, never tortured, never left someone to bleed slowly to death on the battlefield.

#9 (_King_): Being the king of thieves that he was, Kurama would never have settled for a mate whose heart he hadn't had to steal; Hiei, so well guarded and so rare a specimen, presented an irresistible challenge.

#10 (_Learn_): It was fortunate that both Kurama and Hiei were already confident and secure in their own identities when they met each other, because the process of learning to love one another knocked so many corners and rough edges off of them, took so much time and effort and compromise, that if they hadn't already been strong as individuals they never could have made it.

#11 (_Blur_): Hiei had never had much use for other people, and when he did use them he put them into strict categories according to what he was using them for; he'd never known how the lines could blur between friend, ally, lover, partner in crime, healer--how they could blur until you no longer knew who was standing beside you, but knew nonetheless that beside you was exactly where he would be.

#12 (_Wait_): "Just exactly how long have you been waiting for this?" Yusuke asked when he was told that his two closest demon friends were now a couple; "Longer than I'm willing to admit," Kurama replied with a wink and the satisfied smile of a hunter who has finally caught a difficult prey.

#13 (_Change_): When Koenma showed Yusuke some video he had kept of a younger, more viscious Hiei, Yusuke looked at it in horror and asked, "When did he change from being like _that_?" and Koenma only shrugged and absently replied, "When he met Kurama, I think."

#14 (_Command_): Kurama never attempted to command Hiei, only to cajole or reason or persuade, for he knew that a command would not be complied with; but when he saw Hiei in danger in battle and shouted, without thought, for Hiei to move _now_, Hiei obeyed instantly.

#15 (_Hold_): To Hiei, to hold onto someone was to restrain them, and he asked Kurama why he and the Detective felt it necessary to restrain each other occasionally, or why Kuwabara wanted to restrain his sister; and Kurama, without laughing, taught him how to hug.

#16 (_Need_): Hiei said that to need someone or something was to be beholden, but Kurama replied in his gentle yet argumentative way that the belief you needed nothing was the greatest and most easily exploitable weakness, and though Hiei sulked for a long time afterwards he had no rebuttle.

#17 (_Vision_): While some of the powers of the Jagan came easily to Hiei, the most basic power, to see beyond normal sight, was slow and hard won; and he had no clues as to why until, towards the end of a fight one day, Kurama threw up his hands in despair and said, "Hiei, I'm surprised you can see a thing with that damned Eye of yours, when you can't see me, can't see Yusuke or Yukina, can't see any of the things that are right under your nose."

#18 (_Attention_): Sometimes a small child will misbehave in order to gain the attention of a distracted parent; sometimes an adult will act out just to draw the focus of their distant lover back to them; sometimes Hiei would refuse to help when his help was clearly needed just so that Kurama would turn all his thoughts and actions towards making Hiei come back.

#19 (_Soul_): "I don't believe there's such a thing as a soul," Hiei said with a derisive snort; "Then you won't mind if I steal yours," Kurama replied with a smile, leaning closer.

#20 (_Picture_): You can have a picture in your head of what your life is going to be like, you can cling to it as long as you want, but the day comes that you realize the irritating demon you accidentally let into your heart years ago has made a permanent home there, and the picture is outdated.

#21 _(Fool_): Kurama cursed himself for a fool when Hiei flitted away in a panic after Kurama kissed him; but Hiei was back that night, pretending nothing had happened but nonetheless standing closer, and Kurama had to hide his smile.

#22 (_Mad_) Only Kurama knew how much Hiei feared madness, and so it was only Kurama that could calm and reassure him when Hiei feared he was descending into that slippery pit.

#23 (_Child_): Because he had had no childhood, literally fighting for survival from the day of his birth, Hiei lacked many essential childhood experiences and had to have Kurama explain such concepts as "best friends" to him.

#24 (_Now_): "I'm tired of waiting for you to be ready," Kurama said to Hiei; "Now is all you get, and if you can't come to me now, you have to let me go."

#25 _(Shadow)_: To many on the "team," such as Yusuke and Kuwabara, it was difficult to comprehend the blend of good and bad, nobility and selfishness, light and dark that both Kurama and Hiei embodied; it was easier to see Kurama as reformed, and Hiei as the dark shadow he cast behind him, especially as neither of them bothered to object to that interpretation of their relationship.

#26 (_Goodbye_): When Hiei insisted that this goodbye was the last, Kurama only shook his head and replied, "The number of times you've told me goodbye for the last time... I won't say goodbye to you, Hiei, because I know you'll be back."

#27 (_Hide) _"You can run but you can't hide," Kurama said softly to himself, smiling in a manner that managed to be both patient and predatorial, as he watched Hiei flitting away.

#28 (_Fortune_): Kurama once told Hiei that the "fortune" he sought by working his most difficult heists with a partner (such as Hiei himself) was not the treasure that could not be otherwise stolen, but the good fortune of meeting and keeping a partner he could trust, and Hiei could never quite decide whether or not to believe him.

#29 (_Safe_): _Safe_, Hiei thought to himself, drowsily, as he fell asleep in Kurama's bed, in Kurama's arms, with Kurama's breath stirring his hair; and when he woke to daylight, he realized it was the first time he had ever slept without waking in fear throughout the night.

#30 (_Ghost_): Kurama was sometimes troubled by ghosts, not so much real as imagined--it was many years before he realized Hiei always picked his worst and most heated arguments with Kurama right after he noticed the haunted look appearing in Kurama's eyes, and kept the argument (no matter how irrational) going until Kurama's anger and frustration burned the haunting away.

#31 (_Book_): Hiei complained repeatedly of his boredom when he was waiting for Kurama to get out of school or otherwise be available for sparring and demon plots, to the point that Kurama suggested crisply that Hiei might avail himself of some of Kurama's books; and the speed with which Hiei dropped the subject made Kurama realize that Hiei had never learned to read, so he set about finding a subtle way to teach him.

#32 (_Eye_): Hiei had learned the trick of setting his Jagan to watch somebody while he did other things, rather like setting a TV to a particular channel and then leaving it on all day while you worked; it was only later that he learned the choice of whom it watched was highly subconscious, when he found it straying from his sister more and more often to observe a certain fox.

#33 (_Never_): When Yusuke finally got up the courage to ask Kurama exactly how he and Hiei defined their place in each other's lives, Kurama only looked at him blankly and replied, "I don't know... I've never thought to ask him."

#34 (_Sing_): It was entirely on accident as they travelled many tedious miles together one afternoon that Kurama discovered (to Hiei's everlasting mortification, for he had been caught engaging in an activity he claimed to deplore) that Hiei's deep speaking tone translated to a rich bass singing voice,

#35 (_Sudden_): To Hiei, the realization he was in love was sharp, sudden, and devastating; but when he finally got up the nerve to confess to Kurama, the fox just laughed and said he had known they would fall in love the day they met.

#36 (_Stop_): The relationship spun back and forth, and it didn't matter whether Hiei was telling Kurama to stop pursuing him or Kurama was telling Hiei to do the same; one of them was always in pursuit, and the other was always fleeing from whatever emotions and realizations the first was bringing on.

#37 (_Time_): There had always been an understanding between them, unspoken but very real, that they would wait for a time when it would be possible to take their relationship to a different level; but when Raizen summoned Yusuke, and Kurama and Hiei were also thrown into the fray on opposite sides, Hiei began to wonder if that time would come.

#38 (_Wash_): Hiei came upon Kurama compulsively washing his hands after a gore-filled battle, and it was with unusual gentleness that he lifted Kurama's hands out of the water, told him they were clean enough, and lead him away to a quiet place to mentally recover.

#39 (_Torn_): When Hiei tore his clothes in battle and Yusuke teased him for being careless Hiei snarled that it hardly mattered; but that night Kurama quietly "borrowed" Hiei's shirt and cloak long enough to repair them, for he knew they were Hiei's only clothes and that Hiei was too proud to admit it.

#40 (_History_): When Hiei looked away and muttered that Kurama wouldn't say such things about him if he knew his history, Kurama laughed long and loud and then said, "Hiei, I am hundreds and hundreds of years older than you, and you know the reputation I achieved and the land in which I achieved it; do you honestly think there's anything you have done that I haven't?"

#41 (_Power_): Hiei sought nothing but power, and so he thought he could learn little from Kurama, who hid in the human world licking his wounds--but years and years later, finding himself unable or unwilling to leave Kurama's life, Hiei realized that the fox had much indeed to teach him about power.

#42 (_Bother)_: "You're not bothering me," Kurama assured Hiei, who was perched on his windowsill as Kurama did his homework; "I didn't think I was, and don't care if I am," Hiei replied, but nevertheless he seemed much more relaxed after that.

#43 (_God_): Kurama knew very well that Hiei's anger and derisive insults on the occasions when Kurama chose to petition Inari, god of foxes, was only veiled jealousy and hurt that he did not belong, not anywhere, not even to any god that he could pray to.

#44 (_Wall_): Yusuke declared that the team had to learn how to work together in a crisis, for moments when pure instinct would keep them alive, learn to work in pairs and threes and all four at once, too; but after arriving at Genkai's and watching Kurama and Hiei show off for a moment, helping each other to scale walls and evade traps and climb and crawl and fly to safety in a hundred ways, all of which seemed to take less than a minute, Yusuke firmly forbid them to work together the rest of the day, and instead split them up to teach the others what they already knew.

#45 (_Naked_): Hiei was the only person who was never once deceived by Kurama, who saw him exactly as he was and not as a wise helper or corrupt thief or innocent human; and though he accepted Kurama exactly as he found him, it still made Kurama feel naked in front of him, and he sought to similarly destroy Hiei's barriers.

#46 (_Drive_): "Sometimes I think it's that demon's mission in life to drive me crazy," Kurama said with a scowl, watching Hiei race away and not knowing Hiei was also scowling and thinking the exact same thing.

#47(_Harm_): Kurama told Hiei easily, without thought, that he would never harm him, and after awhile Hiei began to believe him; that was why it hit so hard when Hiei found himself sitting alone, watching Kurama from a distance, and realizing that merely Kurama's absence had become harmful to him.

#48 (_Precious_): Their relationship changed when Hiei finally realized that what Kurama considered precious and worth preservation was not anything Hiei could do for him, but rather Hiei himself.

#49 (_Hunger_): Sometimes Hiei would sit in the tree outside Kurama's window all night, not coming in or even alerting Kurama to his presence but simply staring while the kitsune slept, hungering to be allowed just to sleep beside him, and feeling so empty that he knew nothing would ever fill him.

#50 (_Believe_): Trust was the rarest thing in Hiei's life, the rarest and most dangerous, and he knew that Kurama's life had been much the same as his own; so he knew everything Kurama wasn't saying when Kurama slept easily next to Hiei, saying simply, "I don't believe you will harm me."


	6. Extra! Extra!

_A/N: Madhumalati and I recently exchanged "bonus" groups of prompts for this couple, as we'd both already blown through the original sets for them; if you haven't already, go read hers too (and marvel at our ability to produce evil prompts...) As ever, please let me know what your favorites are. I think I've gotten wordier than ever with these. :)  
_

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#1 (_Farce_): It was difficult to pigeonhole Hiei and Kurama, whether they were business associates, or friends, or much more than friends, or simply two people who couldn't get rid of each other; occasionally someone would come close enough to realize each of these interpretations was false, a farce deliberately created to confuse others, but no one ever got close enough to find out the truth. 

#2 (_Infuriating_): "You don't find that infuriating?" Kuwabara spluttered, after Hiei had delivered a few of his trademark cutting remarks and disappeared before they could be replied to; "I find it intriguing," Kurama replied, with a smile that was a bit too feral for Kuwabara's comfort.

#3 (_Vendor_): Hiei's eyebrows shot nearly into his hairline when he witnessed Kurama actually purchasing a trinket from a vendor in a Makai marketplace; he wondered if it was just for variety, as Kurama'd been shamelessly lifting items right and left all day, but later (without being asked) Kurama explained that the item was for Shiori, and so he didn't feel right stealing it.

#4 (_Blade_): "You should really learn not to jump until you know what you're getting into," Kurama sighed, helping Hiei break in the umpteenth replacement for a shattered katana blade; "But you never jump until you're positive what you're getting into, so we're evenly balanced this way," Hiei replied, without pausing in his practice.

#5 (_Zenith_): As terrible as the Dark Tournament had been, Kurama sometimes--frequently--found himself looking back on it fondly, because it was the only time Hiei had worked with the rest of them without being offered a bribe in return; the highest point their relationship reached before the inevitable decline and parting.

#6 (_Fanciful_): Sometimes when there was nothing else to do, an odd mood would strike the fox and he would begin to spin fanciful, drawn-out stories about improbable fates awaiting himself and Hiei as a couple; and though he often glanced at Hiei to see if he was disturbing him, and upped the level of the stories in a concerted effort to do so, Hiei never offered anything but a mild, unperturbed glance in response.

#7 (_Arrogance_): The worst part about Kurama's arrogance was that whenever Hiei would actually call him on it, Kurama would only smile and fall silent, and Hiei would have to admit that Kurama had, in fact, been correct before the conversation could proceed.

#8 (_Deception_): Kurama calmly told Hiei that Koenma's deal extended to both of them or neither of them, knowing that even in the wake of Kurama's recent betrayal Hiei's honor would not permit him to jail Kurama out of spite, and he would be forced to take the deal; also knowing that he would never be able to tell Hiei the truth, that Kurama could have walked out of there with or without him, and hating the pattern of deception that was forming between them.

#9 (_Layers_): "One would almost think you were trying to hide something," Kurama sighed, working his way through the fifth layer of Hiei's clothing to finally reach his wound and reflecting that it was a shame Hiei wasn't conscious to appreciate the irony.

#10 (_Insouciance_): When Kurama first met Hiei he found the smaller demon's insouciance amusing--Hiei didn't have the power, skill, or connections to even back up his attitude, much less his actions--but over the years the insouciance disappeared to be replaced by an intensely powerful, intensely weary demon whom Kurama could no longer put in his place when necessary, and Kurama mourned the loss.

#11 (_Nadir_): There were certain things you just knew would come back, like the sun after night or summer after winter; Kurama was old enough to know when something was inescapable, and so Hiei's temporary removal to Mukuro's fortress bothered him not at all, and Hiei's plans to surprise him some years later with his return were disappointed.

#12 (_Axis_): Everyone, knowing or unknowing, had their own private axis which they were oriented around, a central belief that all other facts must be compliant to, and the destruction of such an axis was inevitably devastating; Hiei's axis had been demolished so many times in childhood that he quickly came to rely on the belief that no one and nothing could really touch him, but even that belief was eventually broken in the hands of a red-haired fox.

#13 (_Economy_): Kurama viewed their interaction as a series of business transactions, where they bought and sold such commodities as skills, firepower, and trust for limited periods of time, a mutual understanding with a clause of secrecy; it was years before he could admit that neither of them had ever really believed that was what it was.

#14 (_Windswept)_: When Kurama returned from investigating their surroundings, his cheeks bright and hair windswept, a few autumn leaves residing in it, Hiei was deeply troubled by the first word that came into his mind: _adorable._

#15 (_Scatter_) It was important to both of them to appear in control at all times, and in even the most minute aspects of their lives; when they finally began to let their guard down against each other, Kurama's room was quickly transformed from being so pristine you wouldn't believe anyone lived into it to being so deeply coated in scattered clothes, discarded weapons, and other random possessions that you wouldn't have believed less than ten people lived in it, and they both had to laugh at themselves and their initial carefulness.

#16 (_Flay_): Kurama's whip was quick to flay someone to pieces, but his words were much slower to do so; unless, Hiei discovered, you got close enough that you could truly hurt him, and then his tongue could tear you to shreds faster and more effectively than any whip.

#17 (_Video Games_): "Think of it as a kind of sparring or training," Kurama suggested, entirely too chipper, as a weary Hiei gave up and took the controller for what felt like the millionth time.

#18 (_Unleash_): When the false Kuronue made his fatal error and unleashed Kurama's long-restrained wrath, Hiei was lying when he said it was good to see there was something even Kurama would lose his temper over; what he really meant was _it's terrifying to see you lose your temper_, or _it's terrifying to lose your temper over him_, or perhaps even _would you ever lash out like that for my sake?_

#19 (_Carnal_): Kurama had had centuries in which to learn how to seduce, and never did so without careful thought; Hiei, younger both literally and figuratively, was predictably and completely helpless as Kurama began to lace their every interaction with sensuality--the movement of his hands across his own skin casually carnal, the act of licking sauce from his fingertips sinful, the healing touch no longer an innocent one.

#20 (_Innocence_): Hiei found it disconcerting and beyond infuriating that Kurama's portrayal of innocence was so good that Hiei often would not realize Kurama had stolen something until the fox outright admitted it, bored with waiting for Hiei to notice.

#21 (_Alibi)_: When Yusuke uneasily mentioned that there had been a string of unexplained arson in the city last night, Kurama lied smoothly and reassured him, commenting that Hiei would regret having missed out on it as he'd been training with Kurama; later, he told Hiei he was sick of lying for him, but Hiei paid him no mind because they both knew that no matter what he said, Kurama would always provide an alibi if Hiei needed one.

_#22 (Staircase_): "You know, I'm getting tired of staring at your rear end," Hiei commented on the two hundred and eighty-first step of a tightly wound spiral staircase; "Then trade me places," Kurama replied, stepping below him with a wink and an expression that kept Hiei paranoid all the way to the final five hundreth step.

#23 (_Follow_): Neither of them had ever been able to follow to any degree, lacking both the trust and the docility it required; yet one day, most of the way out of a nest of treacherous enemies, Hiei realized he had been blindly following Kurama's steps for a good twenty minutes, and immediately began to resent the fox for it.

#24 (_Inconceivable_): In a very short time, Kurama had managed to completely bypass every defense mechanism Hiei had and make the thought that Kurama would ever leave or betray him virtually inconceivable, which of course rendered it a hundred times more effective when Kurama did just that; later, when Hiei understood how calculated and thought out Kurama's every action was, he bluntly asked how Kurama had done it, but the fox--while denying nothing--declined to answer.

#25 (_Trust_): Trust in battle was one thing, because the absence of it was deadlier than it's presence, but trust outside battle was another thing entirely; and though they were friends it was years before they slept more than lightly in each other's presence, years before they gave up secrets for no reason but that they wanted to, years before their mutual attraction overwhelmed their mutual mistrust and lead to something more.

#26 (_Deduce_): Hiei knew that Kurama was frequently appealed to by the other members of their fighting team to explain Hiei's behavior, and it bothered him on two counts: one, because Kurama was as likely as not to get the wrong answer (or give the wrong answer on purpose), and two, because Hiei was even more skilled at deducing Kurama's motives than vice versa, but the fox still got all the credit.

#27 (_Betray_): The sting of betrayal, when Kurama defected and aided Yusuke, was sharp but nothing new; the confusion of restitution, later, was entirely new and something that Hiei considered final proof of Kurama's eccentricity... but nevertheless, he knew no more betrayals would pass between them.

#28 (_Pet_): "I swear by all the gods," Kurama growled, "if you do not stop _petting_ me like that I will--" But the fascination of the new and furry ears was too great, and Hiei knew when to pay attention to Kurama's umbrage and when not to, and soon the fox had stopped threatening and started melting.

#29 (_Anger_): Because it was rare for Kurama to lose his temper, most people thought it was also rare for him to be angry; Hiei, whose plans had suffered from the machinations of a quietly furious fox, knew better, and kept a weather eye out for the silence and darkened eyes that meant trouble.

#30 (_Reality_): Hiei was familiar with the sensation of simultaneously hating someone and appreciating their abilities; he had never felt it so strongly as when he stood in his jail cell and watched Kurama lean against the opposite wall, ostentatiously free and calculatedly confident, saying, "Whatever may be true of the past, Hiei, the reality of the present is that you need me."

#31 (_Seeking_): It took Hiei a long time to realize that though he thought of himself as constantly searching, he had in reality found what he sought when he met Kurama; and it took Kurama a similarly long time to realize that, though he thought of himself as content to remain with Shiori, when Hiei appeared he had begun to seek for something more.

#32 (_Analyze)_: It was Kurama's habit to analyze anything he came across, so it was no surprise when he was able to come up with a working understanding of Hiei's personality within a very short time; what was astounding was later, when Hiei calmly returned that understanding, pegging Kurama's guilt and anger and battlelust for what they were with an ease that left the fox, used to being considered inscrutable, desperately intrigued.

#33 (_Equivalence_): The reason Kurama got along with Hiei so well was that it hadn't taken him long to learn to translate: _That was stupid_ was the equivalent of _I was scared for you_, _I hate that_ meant _I don't understand that_, and _You look like a girl _was a simple _You're beautiful._

#34 (_Arbitrary_): Kurama's decisions were never arbitrary, no matter what lesser minds might think of them; the decision to give or withhold mercy was always calculated, the choice to trust or distrust supportable, the offering or refusing of friendship earned--and though Hiei often disagreed with Kurama's decisions, when he realized how much went into them he felt the honor of being the recipient of mercy, trust, and friendship all the more keenly.

#35 (_Oranges_): "Show off," Kurama muttered, just exactly loud enough for Hiei to hear him; "I'm bored," Hiei replied with a shrug, tossing another orange into the air and, using his katana, divesting it of its peel without piercing the fruit.

#36 (_Deliberate_): Over the years Hiei had begun to suspect Kurama of manipulating situations to keep Hiei in the human world, but he had never expected so blatant or deliberate a move as to be taken from Makai to Ningenkai while he slept; and no amount of explanation afterwards, no matter how rational, could erase the mistrust and resentment it caused.

#37 (_Artistic_): "I don't like your use of color," Hiei commented, eyeing the latest battle scene; "Next time I'll do it in black and red roses, just for you," Kurama replied, having to privately admit that the poppies had really been a rather poor choice.

#38 (_Professional_): "It's a matter of professionalism," Kurama replied when asked how he and Hiei had wound up on the same team and the same bail a short period of time after attempting to destroy each other.

#39 (_Inept_): For all his centuries of skill, there were some areas Hiei considered Hiei completely inept in; one of them was ending relationships, because all of Kurama's past partners came back to haunt him, and so Hiei resolved that if it ever became necessary to end their relationship, he would do Kurama the final favor of ending it quickly, firmly, and as thoroughly as possible.

#40 (_Spartan_): "You know, you _are_ allowed to decorate now that you live here," Kurama commented dryly, looking around Hiei's spartan quarters in Alaric; Hiei only shrugged, and Kurama realized--largely inspired by the fact that Hiei had long ago successfully gotten Kurama to change some things in his own room just to make Hiei more comfortable there--that Hiei didn't plan on making a permanent abode here.

#41 (_Teeth_): Most demons considered lightning-fast adaptability and fluidity essential to survival, and prized them highly--Hiei, too, understood their necessity, but from birth his nature had been to sink his teeth into something hard and never let go, never surrender the goal; during their separation, Kurama found this trait quite bothersome, but later was grateful that Hiei had not allowed their relationship to be broken.

#42 (_Shopping_): "What on earth makes you think I would have the slightest interest in going shopping with you?" Hiei asked disparagingly; "Because for me, shopping involves staking out the site beforehand and exiting rapidly while occasionally forgetting to pay for the purchase," Kurama replied with a straight face, and Hiei was suddenly much more interested.

#43 (_Tail_): Kurama's teasing of Hiei was subtle, gleeful, and constant; Hiei's retaliation was less frequent but also rather more pointed, and Kurama would have rather died than admit part of his reluctance to take his Youko form had to do with Hiei's penchant for pulling his tail.

#44 (_Choice_): "I had a choice to say to hell with you years ago, you know," Hiei grumbled half-heartedly as he helped Kurama plot his latest scheme; but Kurama, who was considerably better than Hiei realized at reading facing, only smiled and thought _no, you never did._

#45 (_Golden_): To most humans, the phrase that something was "golden" meant it was untouchable, unbeatable, prefect; to Kurama, gold was only something of mediocre value that could be stolen with relative ease, so he attached no such labels to the relationship he found himself participating in with Hiei, for it was far more valuable and not something Kurama would allow to be stolen.

#46 (_Scarf_): Kurama surprised even himself the day he reached out and grabbed Hiei's scarf _hard_ to keep the other demon from leaving; but the ensuing indignity of Hiei's expression and minor coughing fit quickly had all three of his teammates laughing, and Hiei, finding himself outnumbered, was forced to shelve revenge for another day.

#47(_Outfoxed_): Kurama had a tendency to be near-sighted when it came to his widely acclaimed brilliance; he could predict the movements of the entire political structure of Makai, and was rarely surprised by an opponent in or out of the ring, yet a certain fire demon could flit in and out of his awareness and surprise him with what they both, privately, considered troubling ease.

#48 (_Bitter_): Occasionally Kurama would complain that one of his plant attacks had left a bitter taste or smell behind it, and start searching for a chance to wash his hair; Hiei started to catalog which plants had this effect, but quickly saw there was absolutely no consistency to it, no pattern except for this--it was only when Kurama felt shame or guilt during the fight that his plants tasted bitter.

#49 (_Together_): Literally worlds apart, they studied the same political intrigues, kept watch over the same individuals, felt the same longings, woke from the same nightmares, looked at the same sky with the awareness that the other was also looking; and most people would have called it a separation, but they knew better.

#50 (_Cling_): They both existed within shifting realities--where a race once despised could become one's own, where friendship once shunned could suddenly become essential, where a sister once believed cold could show warmth and a mother once disdained could teach gentleness--and as their worlds continued to rearrange themselves, year after year, it began to matter more and more that there was one person whose presence and support was constant, and it began to matter less and less if it became obvious to others that they were clinging to each other.


End file.
